


If You Need Me

by SpringZephyr



Category: Shall We Date?: Obey Me!
Genre: Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Gender-neutral Reader, Hugs, Other, Reader-Insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:34:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27931570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpringZephyr/pseuds/SpringZephyr
Summary: Lucifer is feeling overwhelmed, but refuses to admit it.Satan discovers how many animals die in classic human world literature.
Relationships: Lucifer/Main Character (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!), Lucifer/Reader (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!), Main Character & Satan (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!), Main Character/Satan (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 174





	1. Soothing Lucifer

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to make this an entire mini series, but so far I only have stories for Lucifer and Satan written. Maybe the rest of the brothers will have to wait before they're comforted...? If I write their stories at all, sorry--

"Lucifer--"

You hear a sharp intake of breath; almost immediately, you forget what you came into Lucifer's office for, as he lifts his head from where it was buried in his hands. He doesn't lecture you on the importance of knocking immediately after you barged in, which is clue number two that something might be wrong. Reflexively, you ask to know what’s bothering him.  


“What makes you think anything is wrong?” Lucifer asks, and the words are smooth, porcelain, the way his responses always are.

Except.

Lucifer can hide a lot of things from you, but he can’t hide the shiny spots on his cheeks, the gumminess in his voice. It’s a little rougher than usual. Deeper. Raw, you think, while conducting a more intense study on Lucifer’s face. He looks and sounds like he's been crying recently. It's not an observation you'd ever expected to make about the mighty Lucifer, but it's not something you waste time dwelling on either.  


Apparently, Lucifer shares that disinterest in dwelling. You want to comfort him, but instead of welcoming that hand you reach out to him, he turns away. He turns his head to the side, hiding half of his face from you. Rests his chin on one hand, fingers splayed to cover as much of his face as possible, and it doesn’t cover everything, least of all what he's attempting to hide. The Avatar of Pride does not cave into his emotions, does not have bad days, and certainly does not cry.

His reaction immediately reminds you of how stubborn Lucifer can be, and the words "what makes you think something is wrong?" replay in your head. You step back from his desk as they do, pondering how best to answer this question. The stress of keeping his brothers in line and student council is getting to him, you think, with a small chance of Diavolo being somehow involved on the side.

“Your desk is messier than usual,” you eventually decide. An indirect approach is what suits Lucifer best, and not even he can deny that there are more papers and uncapped pens laying around his desk than normal.  


“Apologies.” It’s weird that he’s apologizing to you. Another sign that Lucifer is not feeling his usual self. “If I’d known you’d be coming in, I would have at least tidied it -- what with a third of the staff going on strike, the bloodball team catching the plague, and Levi picking a fight with Mammon over one of those Rory-chan figurinse…”   
  
“Ruri-chan,” you corrected. Again, on reflex.

It wasn’t like Lucifer to make a mistake regarding one of his younger brothers either, but he nods without his chin really leaving his hand, and acknowledges it. “Right. Aside from that, there are still talks about expanding the transfer student program, and after Diavolo’s birthday party, the student body is pushing for more ‘international’ options on the cafeteria menu.”

And the problems don’t stop there. He is also in the midst of tracking down the prankster who put a mirror curse on several of the Little Ds, the kelpie that had somehow declared residency in RAD's first floor bathroom, and the mess Diavolo had made of his filing cabinet while trying to help with paperwork.   
  
The more Lucifer talked, however, the more his brothers’ names began seeping into the conversation. The parties Asmo went to, and almost didn’t come back from. How Levi sometimes went for days without eating, engrossed in games or anime or self-hatred, even if Lucifer brought food directly to his room. Satan’s absolute and utter dismissal of everything he said and did…

Eventually, the roughness returned to his voice. He may have sniffled once or twice, and you pretended not to hear it. Instead, y ou joined him on the other side of the desk, standing next to him, shrinking the gap between yourself and Lucifer to less than an inch.

Even when you put an arm around his shoulders, leaned close enough to his ear that his hair tickled your nose, and told him that everything would be all right, Diavolo wouldn’t force him to do anything more than he was capable of, and he was a fine older brother, he didn’t resist or attempt to shrug you away. For the Avatar of Pride, you thought, that was a pretty big step.

“Why don’t I bring you something to drink?” you offer.

A nice, relaxing tea, perhaps. Satan and Asmo had taught you how to make something that was like the demon world equivalent of chamomile tea yesterday. 

“...Yes. In fact, I think I would like that very much.”

He sounded relieved. Mostly, you thought, because it might keep you out of the room long enough for him to have a proper chance at recomposing himself. 

But if you came back, and Lucifer decided that he was ready for it, your shoulder would be there for him to cry on.


	2. Comforting Satan

"What are the books from the human realm like?" Satan wonders one day.

"Well… there are series like TSL, although not nearly as long. We humans don't have as much time to write them."

"What about the thing you call 'classical literature'?" Lucifer asks next. "Frankly, I'm not that interested in whatever modern fantasy epic is captivating the minds of humans like Levi, but classic novels should be a good representation of how human literature has evolved over the years. Don't you agree?"

In a way, you do, so you begin listing every book you can remember reading for school assignments.

Satan interrupts partway to inform you, "books about animals would be preferred."

With a playful sigh, you revise your list, fishing every animal themed novel you can think of from the banks of your memory as best you can. They're not happy novels, now that you think about it, but Satan dips his head and thanks you before taking off, leaving you without a chance to explain.

A few days later, you remember the conversation when a parcel from the human world appears in front of Satan's bedroom door. You think about telling him once again, that in the human world, a book basically can't be considered classic literature unless at least one important character dies. But maybe that would upset him? You know he's gotten angry with Lucifer for spoiling books before, though you're not entirely sure how much of that was directed at the spoiling itself and how much of it was at the person doing the spoiling.  


Satan doesn't need you to baby him, you eventually decide. You won't mention anything about the books themselves unless Satan asks. He's more likely to get upset with you for thinking he's incapable of handling a few sad books.

That doesn't mean you don't worry.

It happens in the library, finally. Instead of studying in your room, you chose to sit at a table with a clear view of Satan, glancing up occasionally to see his expression still as concentrated as a bottle of orange juice. (You were in a strange mood for orange juice today, even though it had been a while since you'd seen any number of human world drinks.) While he flipped through the pages of _Old Yeller_ , you... you gave up even pretending to look at your homework, honestly.  


You picked up your D.D.D., and typed a quick response to a text from Beel concerning a question about his workout regime. When you put the device down, Satan was crying. Big, noiseless tears, choked into silence by his own staggered breathing, in the middle of the library.

Forgetting about everything else -- your bookbag, your D.D.D., Satan's own feelings towards public displays of affection -- you jump from your chair and run to his side. He seems to know it's you even before your hand meets his shoulder, and before you can say anything, he sobs out the words, "it's not fair!"

You don't waste time comforting him, not even to subconsciously marvel over the fact that you may never see Satan cry again.

"That dog didn't do anything wrong, except try to save his family! ...And what kind of happy ending is 'the angels planted a fern' anyway? It's the same with that horse -- all of them! There isn't a single horse that gets a happy ending in human world literature!"

It's worse than you thought, you realize, as you quickly cradle Satan's shoulders with your arms. His head is resting against your bicep, where you can feel the vibrations from his sobs traveling up and down your arm. He grabs onto your forearm, somewhat clumsily, given your positions, and is surprisingly unabashed over the tears rolling down his cheeks.

Satan hasn't finished reading just one book purchased from the human world. No, this is the culmination of having read several of them, all within a short period of time.

"One ends up in the glue factory, and the others try their hardest, only to be worked to death, spirits broken..."

"I'm sorry," you say, stunned. You'd known it was going to affect him, but you hadn't known it would affect him this much. "I should have warned you, first."

"Are all classic human world books this sad?" Satan asks, gasping between sobs. "Is it a requirement for at least one animal to die in every story?"

"Well…" You have the good sense to at least hesitate before answering. "Pretty much."

Satan groans again, and not only does it hurt your heart to see him like this, but the librarian appears to be one minute away from sending you both to Lucifer if the fourth born doesn't quiet down this instant.

"There are some happy books too," you say suddenly.

You hadn't mentioned them before, having figured they were mostly well below Satan's normal reading level, but no animals died in them. The majority were picture books. About cottontail rabbits, hungry caterpillars, frogs being friends with toads, and the like.

However, they might be worth suggesting now. Satan looks like he could use the emotional reprieve.

"Most of them are kind of, well… The kind of book Luke would probably read," you explain finally.

In the end, Satan doesn't care, and _the Hungry, Hungry Caterpillar_ ends up becoming one of his guilty pleasures.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this one at the same time as Lucifer's, but I struggled to post it, because hurt/comfort isn't something I believe I write very well... I may continue this series to include the other brothers, however.


End file.
